North Bay 2SLGBTQ youth hub postponing drag show after threats

OutLoud North Bay in Northern Ontario has postponed its youth drag show due to safety concerns after staff and youth were subjected to harassment and threats about the event.

"This is stuff you see in documentaries. This is stuff that you see in movies, you know, on the news in other countries. You just don't feel like you're going to be a victim of it," Seth Compton, the group's founder, told Anne-Marie Mediwake of CTV Your Morning in an interview Friday.

"And I think I'm holding myself together pretty good, but now I've got kids asking if the windows are bullet-proof. Or I have parents asking me if I have a plan set in place for safety if we have gunmen show up. Like this is just stuff, like even as a parent, it's not stuff that I think about in a small northern community. So I'm heartbroken." 

OutLoud North Bay is a members only safe space for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth and Compton, a 47-year-old trans man, said the hate being directed toward the group is exactly why the space is needed.

The group is youth-led and the idea for a youth drag show came from one of the teen members, Compton said.

"It's geared to the kids that pay to be there and we offer programming and we create events for them. We do cosplay events, we've had Halloween parties, so we've had opportunity for kids to dress up before," he said.

"Our mandate, as a charity, is to support all youth and their identities. I need to be able to let the kids express themselves and that's what this space is about."

It all began last week when a controversial American social media account, that mostly targets the 2SLLGBTQIA+ community, posted screenshots of event promotion.

"I think what happened was some of our youth are in charge of creating some media content and we pulled an image from the internet I guess that had some drag history to it in the United States with a youth down there and that created a huge storm of stuff on its own," Compton said.

Thousands of comments sent to youth and adults connected to OutLoud North Bay are extremely ugly and derogatory and have even involved death threats, he told CTV News in an interview last week. As a result, the group, which has nearly 4,000 followers on Facebook, has shut down the comments on its social media accounts.  

The North Bay police said they are taking these threats very seriously, however, it is difficult to lay charges, as a lot of these comments and messages seem to be coming south of the border from the U.S.

The LGBT YouthLine is offering peer support for the youth affected by this incident through phone at 1-800-268-9688, text 1-647-694-4275 and chat at youthline.ca.

Both Canada and the U.S. celebrate Pride Month in the month of June honouring the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan and is known as "a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement" in the country. The community of North Bay is celebrating Pride week this year Sept. 14 – 18 and preparations are already underway.

"I think it's important to continue to fight for who we are and it sucks that I can't walk the streets feeling safe, you know," Compton said.

"So many trans folks have been murdered just based on their identity and it needs to stop. We need to teach our kids. They're our future so we need to be able to move forward with love and acceptance."

The North Bay sexual violence support centre Amelia Rising posted a statement of support for OutLoud North Bay on Thursday afternoon.

"Recently, OutLoud North Bay was the target of an organized online hate campaign designed to shame and discourage the centre and their work. Amelia Rising believes that hate and threats should not be tolerated in our community," the statement said.

"We recognize the positive impacts organizations like OutLoud have in supporting the mental health and wellness of the 2SLGBTQ+ youth and stand in support of all programs that celebrate our community's diversity."

With files from Eric Taschner, CTV News North Bay video journalist and Anne-Marie Mediwake, host of CTV Your Morning.